CH 37

Bai Chunian inserted his other hand in his pocket and hoisted the gun over his shoulder. He jumped off the top of the towering telephone pole and landed next to Rimbaud.

Rimbaud sat on the corpse of the mercenary who was killed by a headshot, lifted the corpse’s T-shirt, and wiped the mud that splattered on his tail. 

Bai Chunian looked at the pyramid-shaped cabin nearby: “Do you want to go in? What about these guys?”

Rimbaud’s mobile phone was already connected to the Alliance Police Station. The headquarters had transferred police officers from the Red Maple Mountain area who drove over to transport the corpse and the electrocuted mercenaries away.

“You go home.” Rimbaud shook his head, “It’s very tiring, I can do it, myself.”

“Anyway, I’m unemployed now. Just get the prize money and split me two hundred.” Bai Chunian searched for something from the mercenary’s body, slipped through the cordon by bending, and opened the door of the pyramid cabin.

It was completely dark inside and nothing could be seen. They had no choice but to rely on Rimbaud’s glowing tail to illuminate a section of the floor underneath. However, due to the poor rainproof installation at the entrance, a puddle of water already accumulated on the ground, and several blue jellyfishes produced by Rimbaud’s tail were swimming in the water.

Bai Chunian also just recently discovered where these jellyfish came from. As long as Rimbaud’s tail created bubbles in the water, the bubbles would automatically turn into small jellyfish that emit blue fluorescent light, but it seemed to be a decorative ability that had no use apart from its aesthetics.

This cabin may be powered entirely by external solar panels. It was dawn, and the sunlight had just come out. The lighting facility in the cabin should still be inactive.

“The police station tasked you with investigating this pyramid cabin?” Bai Chunian was used to knowing the content of the mission in advance, but this time he was in a hurry, so he could only proceed without a plan. 

Rimbaud was a newcomer and ordinarily, he wouldn’t be assigned to missions that were too difficult. It was probably because this guy didn’t know how to socialize. He had offended his colleagues by pulling a long and fierce face like a deep-sea fish without realizing it. Bai Chunian thought it was well-deserved for Rimbaud to get tricked by others.

Bai Chunian had also been paying attention to the Triangular Pyramid Cabin incident mentioned in the news. The original version of the video had been blocked by the police, but there were always meddlesome netizens who had saved the video and spread it widely on various anonymous forums.

The video was actually quite simple. The mysterious escape expert used a black curtain as the background and said the rules of the game in a trembling electronically synthesized voice.

“This is an ultra escape room that took three years to build. Escape room enthusiasts around the world shouldn’t miss it… It has only one entrance and one exit. I swear on my life, it has an exit. 

I have placed the prize money at the exit. The first lucky guy who makes it to the exit gets the prize. This is a reward for your intelligence and trickery which I have made using my life savings.

This cabin had a temperature detection device. If someone can go out through the exit within 24 hours, the system will automatically unlock a gift for you. You will definitely like it. In other words, there’s no one who wouldn’t like this thing. It’s worth visiting from any corner of the earth.

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I wish you best of luck.” 

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“I’ve played this kind of game before. A colleague of mine who retired from the military opened such a shop and invited us to drink there. The ticket is quite expensive, more than 300 per person. We would get locked in a small house and then they had us escape the house by unlocking and slipping out. But I sat, waited for a long time, and didn’t see anyone else come out. Later, they told me that they went in just to flirt with the NPC xiao gege. This group of shameless omegas pressed people on the ground to touch around… After spending so much time, I was the only one who played seriously.”

Bai Chunian took out the flashlight that he had just found from the mercenary’s corpse and shone it at his feet: “Watch out for the steps.” Saying that, he took two steps up.

He looked back at Rimbaud, who had stopped where he was, staring at the steps hesitantly. The steps were made of wood, and there was nothing that could conduct electricity for him to absorb. 

He pursed his lips and opened his hand towards the alpha.

Bai Chunian arched his eyes: “What, you can’t walk anymore?”

Rimbaud slapped the steps with the tip of his tail and then shook it in front of Bai Chunian, indicating that he couldn’t get up.

Bai Chunian let out a laugh, bent down, lifted the merman up sideways, and walked briskly up the stairs. 

Each step was quite short, and the height seemed to be only half of the steps of an ordinary residential area, but the path was awfully long. Bai Chunian didn’t have an extra hand to turn on the flashlight while he was holding Rimbaud. He could only stick his left shoulder against the wall when going up the stairs step by step.

After passing a wall edge on his left shoulder, Bai Chunian continued to walk up, mentally counting the steps. After thirty steps, his shoulder passed another edge.

“It’s a spiral staircase. If you go further up, you should reach the rooftop. It doesn’t feel like a very big room, about the same area as my house.”

After his shoulder brushed against the third edge, he went up about fifteen more steps. All of a sudden, Bai Chunian stepped on a puddle of water under his feet. 

He subconsciously looked down and found a few blue jellyfish swimming leisurely in the puddle of water.

“We. Came In. From here.” Rimbaud lowered his eyes and looked at the jellyfish swimming in the puddle of water.

“Fuck, the door is gone.” Bai Chunan switched to carrying the omega with his other hand and touched the wall. When they came, it was originally a door, but now it had become a solid wall. There was only the outline of a hollow door on the wall with leather wallpaper, which looked like a decoration.

“I remember going up the stairs but I never walked downhill. What’s going on?” 

“Of course, it’s that, we got lost.” Rimbaud wagged the tip of his tail in boredom. The tip of his tail rolled up a phone that had no signal at all.

Bai Chunian carried Rimbaud up the stairs a few more times. He had been obviously climbing up but returned to this puddle of water with swimming jellyfish in the end.

“It’s fucking strange. With the way I usually  walk, I should’ve climbed to the north peak of Mt. Hua.” Bai Chunian carefully touched the texture on the wall and guessed, feigning sincerity, “We’re just like going around in circles. Is this an illusionary type of differentiation ability… We can narrow down the search. Maybe our real bodies have fainted in some corner now, and at this moment, it’s my consciousness that is carrying your consciousness.”

Rimbaud’s face was blank: “What. Nonsense.” 

A light suddenly lit up in the top corner of the cabin. According to his estimate of the time, the sun should’ve already appeared outside at this time and started supplying power to the cabin.

Rimbaud raised his head, found the light source, and shook the tip of his tail. A ray of current flowed on the lamp at the top. Soon after, the lighting of the entire pyramid cabin lit up and the dark space was suddenly illuminated.

Only then did they realize that the staircase they were on was suspended against the wall. If you took a few more steps to the right, you would fall down with one misstep. It was a little dim below and you couldn’t see anything clearly.

From where they stood, they couldn’t see whether the opposite step was going upward or downward because of a strange oil painting hanging in the middle, tightly blocking the view. 

On the canvas facing them was a large green lizard with protruding eyes. The brushstrokes of the oil painting were delicate and exquisite, depicting every scale and horn of the lizard vividly, especially its eyes. It seemed that with every step you took, the protruding eyes were staring at you.

Bai Chunian walked a few steps down the stairs with Rimbaud in his arms, trying to see what was on the back of the oil painting, but suddenly found that the direction of the stairs beneath his feet had changed unknowingly and turned into the direction of going downstairs.

The stairs downstairs led directly to the bottom and no matter how he walked, he couldn’t turn in the direction where he could see the back of the oil painting.

Rimbaud, who was being held while going down the stairs, would have a very high perspective. Bai Chunian deliberately loosened his hand, and Rimbaud slid down a few centimeters in an instant. He was suddenly frightened and unconsciously tightened his arms around Bai Chunian’s neck. 

Bai Chunian caught him in time and weighed him up. Rimbaud lay on his shoulder, his cold lips pressed to the side of the alpha’s neck.

At this moment, the two were very close to each other. Bai Chunian stared ahead and asked softly, “Do you want to give me a mark?” His voice carried a faint tone of expectation.

Rimbaud didn’t mean it. He had just accidentally touched it.

“I bit you. You should retaliate, that’s more like you.” 

“It didn’t hurt.” Rimbaud shook his head lightly.

Alpha glands don’t have the cells for receiving marks, so there was no such thing as being marked. However, when an omega intentionally infused pheromones into an alpha’s body, it would be injected under the alpha’s skin together with mark-imitating factors, forming this kind of mark under its skin. In fact, it was similar to hickeys. It had no meaning and would disappear in a few days.

In the evolutionary history of human differentiation, the feasibility of two-way marking had been studied specifically, but authorities rejected it. Because alphas naturally took pleasure in controlling and hated to be bound, most alphas were extremely averse to omegas leaving marks on their bodies that symbolize possession. Instead, they were happy to leave a mark on omegas to declare their right of belonging.

“But I want one.” Bai Chunian curled his lips and pointed to the side of his neck, “Here, give me a bite.” 

Rimbaud didn’t quite understand this kind of behavior, but Bai Chunian raised his hand and pressed the back of his head, forcing him down to his nape: “I just want it.”

Rimbaud couldn’t breathe. He opened his mouth and bit his neck, injecting pheromones into his skin.

“Hiss…” The sensation of sharp teeth penetrating his skin and forcing in the pheromones hurt.

A small blue fish-shaped crest was visible in the middle of the bloody teeth marks. Bai Chunian found a mirror hanging on the wall. He tilted his head for a moment to admire the mark on his neck. 

All the way down the stairs, his feet finally stepped on the ground. The light was dim below, apart from the outline of some furniture, he couldn’t see anything.

A dark figure moved in the corner of the wall in the distance.

Rimbaud jumped off from Bai Chunian, rolled his tail on the nearest chair, and propped his body upright.

Bai Chunian then lifted the HK417 with one hand and pointed the gun at the dark figure in the corner. 

More than two individuals were breathing in the silent and dim room.

Rimbaud raised the tip of his tail and let out a wisp of electric sparks, which lit up the candlesticks on the long table. The candles were lit in turn, and the room lit up bit by bit.

The alpha who was facing the two diagonally also held an SMG, and the laser red dot landed steadily between Bai Chunian’s brows.

The gray wolf alpha held a thin cigar and playfully raised his eyebrows: “The soul of a deceased hasn’t dispersed yet, how come it’s you guys again.” 

“The military organization came here to explore?” Bai Chunian had no intention of putting away the gun, “We’re on official business.” Saying that, he raised his chin and pointed to Rimbaud’s police uniform. Rimbaud took out his ID from his upper coat pocket and showed it for them to see.

He Suowei saw the badge of the Alliance Police Station on Rimbaud’s chest and a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes. He took initiative and put away the gun and pointed to the four letters of “PBBw” prominently displayed on his bulletproof vest: “The president of the Omega Alliance asked us for assistance. Our superior sent us to clean up the experimental subjects.”

PBB referred to the Pacific Bio-differentiation Base, which belonged to the National Independent Army Base. PBBw specifically referred to the elite Storm Special Forces assembled under the command of the base.

“We don’t have many leads either. We only know that a lot of unfortunate guys have come in and haven’t gone out yet.” He Suowei dusted off the cigarette ash, “But there seems to be only one room here. I don’t know where those people have gone. Pyramid cabin… The name is quite cute and it’s very strange. It took us more than half an hour just climbing the stairs.” 

“But this room has four corners.” Bai Chunian pulled a chair and sat, stretching his legs to rest, “The pyramid cabin should just be misleading our sight. In fact, this room is an entire cube, most of it is buried underground, and there’s a sharp point exposed above the ground.”

“Theoretically, the room we’re staying in should have a cube with a diagonal line perpendicular to the ground. Simply put, it’s a cube with a point standing on the ground. I’m now curious why we can maintain balance in it. The ground under my feet feels flat.”

“Captain He, what’re you doing standing so far away? Come over here and I’ll show you something good.” Bai Chunian waved his hand at He Suowei in a rather familiar way, “You smoke such a good cigarette, give me one.”

He Suowei simply threw him a thin cigar. Bai Chunian took it and put it in his mouth, leaned forward to the gray wolf alpha, and lit the cigarette. 

He Suowei asked without thinking the matter through, “If he’s a police officer, what are you doing here?”

Bai Chunian tilted his head, revealing a small blue fish-shaped mark on his neck: “I’m a family member of the police officer. This is my identification.”